Newly-minted Perlis mufti Dr Mohd Asri Zainul Abidin said Islamic leaders must squarely address the questions of apostates and other challenges, and not further damage the Muslim community by their own failure to live up to religious values.

Farish Noor - Malaysian academic and activist - casts a critical eye on his home country. He examines the current debate around religious freedom, and the sensitivities surrounding those who wish to convert from Islam.

Do you know your reproductive rights? This was the question of which the answers dominated the discussions in a media sensitisation workshop on sexual and reproductive health issues held in Kuala Lumpur on 4 November.

In this article by Zainah Anwar, she is heartened that public opinion in Malaysia does not accept the hostile and aggressive propagation of a narrow understanding of one's faith and the turning of dogmatic personal piety into a directive for all to obey.

Malaysia was one of the first Muslim countries to provide for divorce to take place only in court. But in 1994 the law was amended to allow the registration of divorces outside courts, thus defeating the original intent & spirit of the 1984 law reform.

Interview with WLUML networker Rashida Manjoo about her experiences of the Gender Equality Commission of South Africa, conducted during the recent conference in Malaysia on 'Mechanisms and Legislation to Promote and Protect Gender Equality'.

A compilation of articles by key Islamic scholars on the subject of diversity of opinion in Islam. The main essay by Mohammad Hashim Kamali, explores the scope of diversity and disagreement among pre-modern Islamic jurists.

A recent survey caused a stir by revealing how Malaysian Malays rate the importance of religion in their lives. Over 70 per cent of 1,000 Malays surveyed nationwide said they viewed themselves as Muslims first, Malaysians second, and Malays third.